Political Digest for August 19, 2012

Excerpt: The U.S. Navy's oldest commissioned warship
will sail under its own power for just the second time in more than a century
to commemorate the battle that won it the nickname "Old Ironsides." …
The short trip marks the day two centuries ago when the Constitution bested the
British frigate HMS Guerriere in a fierce battle during the War of 1812.

Excerpt: A recent Washington Post poll showed
that “74 percent of Americans favor government-issued photo ID mandates at
polling places.” This meant little to CNN because the network, whose ratings
are in the proverbial toilet, ignored those numbers “in six separate segments
on voter ID laws.” A majority of Americans believe that showing identification
is simply common sense when identification is necessary to identify someone.
When it comes to voting, liberals are incensed that anyone would have to prove
who they are. (The argument is protecting minorities, who Democrats claim are
to incompetent to play by the same rules as white. But they really know
better—the intent is to encourage fraud, and win at any price. Been going on in
the machine-run Democrat controlled cities since Tammany Hall. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will
deliver a powerful rebuke of President Obama’s campaign this evening. His
remarks come after Vice President Joe Biden told supporters “They’re going to
put y’all back in chains” — speaking about Republicans. The Obama campaign
later said the president did not have a problem with Biden’s statement.
Following are the excerpts from Romney’s speech:

Quote

I am superstitious. I have scarcely known a party, preceding
an election, to call in help from the neighboring states, but they lost the
state. –Abraham Lincoln

Excerpt: Cody Slaughter may have been a little too forthcoming
while interviewing for a job with the border patrol. The 22-year-old from Somerton, Ariz.,
was arrested last week after U.S. Customs and Border Protection notified the
Yuma County Sheriff's Office that during a July 2 "pre-employment
screening" Slaughter admitted that he had molested a 2-year-old girl eight
years ago, had sexual interactions with a dog, horse and pig, and had a history
of drug use. (Another Progressive off the streets! ~Bob.)

Excerpt: But it has also stoked anger with the Family
Research Council, a conservative Christian policy group that lashed out this
week after a 28-year-old gunman stormed their downtown Washington headquarters and opened fire. "Let
me be clear that Floyd Corkins was responsible for firing the shot
yesterday," said council president Tony Perkins. "But Corkins was
given a license to shoot an unarmed man by organizations like the Southern
Poverty Law Center that have been reckless in labeling organizations hate
groups because they disagree with them on public policy." (Like “racism,”
“hate speech” is a convenient way for the left to dismiss any criticism they
cannot respond to. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: A teenager in Tanzania was recently sentenced to
two years in prison after being accused of desecrating the Qur'an. Eva
Abdullah, 17, converted to Christianity from Islam three years ago. Her parents
disowned her after her conversion and a group of radicals in her hometown of
Bagamoyo tried to persuade her to renounce her Christian faith. When she
refused, they falsely accused her of desecrating a Qur'an.

Deadly insider attack
that left 3 U.S.
Marines dead was work of an Afghan teenager

Excerpt: But although Aynoddin, 15, lived among American and
Afghan security forces, he was not a soldier or a police officer. He had never
been vetted. According to U.S.
and Afghan officials, his role on base was hardly formal: He was the unpaid,
underage personal assistant of the district police chief. … He spent his days
cooking for Jan and cleaning up after him. Both Afghans and Americans knew him
as the boss’s “tea boy.” (There are other interpretations of “tea boy” than
“personal assistant.” ~Bob.)

Excerpt: n 1990, the year before the collapse of the Soviet
Union, I attended an economic conference in Moscow. Like my father during his visits to
the U.S.S.R. in the early 1930s, I was astonished and appalled by what I saw. Simple
necessities, such as toilet paper, were in short supply. (The Koch
brothers have been described as the pinnacle of Right Wing extremists, the
perfect practitioners of unfettered capitalism, the supporters of all sorts of
Far Right groups, the exploiters of workers, etc, etc. It is true they are
extremely successful and quite rich businessmen. (But not nearly as rich as
George Soros, who has never run any sort of manufacturing business, but who has
been accused of manipulating the market to make it crash, from which he admits
making about a billion dollars.) But they have been involved in actual business
management as well as investments, and they have worked within the system. Here
we get to see what one of them has to say for himself and his view of
economics, how things do and do not work. Maybe it's only fair to read his
words without prejudging him, see if it makes any sense. --Del)